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Editorial 7 MIN READ

Nevada in October 2024: the real cost of staying in good standing

An Annual List, a State Business License, and a privacy pitch that quietly lost its best argument

The Editors
Staff, Incorporator.org
7 min read Updated
Contents 6 sections
  1. The mechanics of the annual filing
  2. Commerce Tax and the $4 million threshold
  3. Privacy, beneficial ownership, and the CTA
  4. Nevada versus Delaware, in actual dollars
  5. Who Nevada still makes sense for in late 2024
  6. Sources

Nevada LLC costs $350 a year to keep in good standing: $150 for the Annual List of Managers or Managing Members and $200 for the State Business License, filed together with the Secretary of State on the last day of the anniversary month of formation. That is the Nevada annual report bill in 2024, and it is roughly four times what Delaware charges for the equivalent maintenance.

This guide is for a founder or operator who formed in Nevada, or who is considering it, and wants the 2024 numbers, the statutes behind them, and an honest read on who the state still makes sense for now that the Corporate Transparency Act has taken effect.

The mechanics of the annual filing

Every Nevada LLC files an Annual List and renews its State Business License on the same cycle. The two filings live on the same form and are paid together. For an LLC, the Annual List fee is $150 under NRS 86.263 and the State Business License fee is $200 under NRS 76.100, for a total of $350. The list names the managers or managing members and their street addresses; the business license is a standalone state registration that predates the income-tax-less-state framing and is levied on nearly every entity doing business in Nevada.

The due date is the last day of the month in which the LLC was formed. An LLC formed on March 8, 2023 owes its first Annual List and business license by March 31, 2024, and every March 31 after. A late filing adds a $75 penalty on the Annual List and a $100 penalty on the business license, and continued default revokes the entity's charter.

For corporations, the arithmetic is different in two places. The State Business License is $500 rather than $200, and the Annual List fee is graduated by authorized capital under NRS 78.150 on a schedule that starts at $150 for authorized shares under 75,000 and climbs through several brackets to $11,125 for corporations with more than 10 million authorized shares. A Nevada C-corp incorporated with a default 10 million share ceiling, to look familiar to Delaware-trained counsel, walks into the top tier and owes $11,625 a year in combined list and license fees. The fix is the same as in Delaware: authorize fewer shares, or understand the bracket before you file.

Commerce Tax and the $4 million threshold

Nevada's Commerce Tax, enacted in 2015 and codified at NRS 363C, is the feature most often misunderstood by founders who came to Nevada for the no-income-tax pitch. The tax applies to business entities with Nevada gross revenue above $4 million in a fiscal year. Rates vary by NAICS industry category, from roughly 0.051 percent for mining to 0.331 percent for rail transportation, with most operating categories landing in the 0.1 to 0.2 percent band.

The practical consequence is that almost no early-stage company owes Commerce Tax. A startup with $3 million in Nevada-sourced gross revenue owes zero. The threshold is on Nevada-sourced receipts, not worldwide revenue, so a company with global sales but a modest Nevada footprint often stays under. Entities that do pay Commerce Tax can credit 50 percent of it against their Modified Business Tax liability in the following four quarters, under NRS 363A.130 and 363B.110, which makes the net bill small for most payroll-heavy Nevada employers who cross the line.

One note on sales tax, because it recurs in founder confusion. Since South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 138 S. Ct. 2080 (2018), nexus follows sales, not incorporation. Forming a Nevada LLC does not, on its own, create or avoid sales-tax obligations anywhere. Founders who chose Nevada expecting the entity shell to carry tax advantages into their customers' states generally discovered otherwise over the six years that followed.

Privacy, beneficial ownership, and the CTA

Nevada's marketing to out-of-state founders has long leaned on three points: no state income tax, nominee-manager structures that obscure ownership on the public list, and charging-order-only creditor remedies under NRS 86.401. Two of those are still intact. The privacy leg is weaker in 2024 than it was a year ago.

The Corporate Transparency Act, 31 U.S.C. section 5336, took effect on January 1, 2024. Every Nevada LLC and corporation formed on or after that date must file a Beneficial Ownership Information report with FinCEN within 90 days of formation, and entities formed before 2024 have until January 1, 2025 to file their initial report. The BOI report names each individual who directly or indirectly owns 25 percent or more of the entity or exercises substantial control, with their date of birth, residential address, and a scan of a government ID. The filing is not public, but it is federal, searchable by law enforcement and a growing list of regulators, and it runs straight through the nominee-manager layer that Nevada's privacy pitch depended on.

What remains is public-record privacy. The Annual List still permits a nominee-manager structure, and the Secretary of State does not require the names of members on the face of the list. For a founder whose concern is public searchability, rather than concealment from federal authorities, that still has value. For a founder who believed Nevada offered ownership opacity as such, the 2024 picture is different from the brochure.

One Nevada advantage has aged well: the 365-year perpetuity period for trusts under NRS 111.1031, which lets Nevada host dynasty trusts holding LLC interests for a horizon no other state outside South Dakota and Tennessee matches. The long perpetuity window and the asset- protection case law remain genuine differentiators for high-net-worth planning.

Nevada versus Delaware, in actual dollars

The comparison that matters for most founders is not Nevada versus Wyoming or Nevada versus South Dakota. It is Nevada versus Delaware, because Delaware is where the alternative default lives.

A Delaware LLC costs $90 to form and $300 a year in franchise tax under 6 Del. C. section 18-1107(e), with no annual report required. Total annual cost: $300.

A Nevada LLC costs $75 to form, and $350 a year in combined Annual List and State Business License fees under NRS 86.263 and NRS 76.100. Total annual cost: $350, before any Commerce Tax, MBT, sales tax, or industry-specific licensing.

For corporations the gap widens. Delaware charges a $50 annual report fee plus franchise tax computed under the lesser of the authorized- shares or assumed-par-value methods (minimum $400, maximum $200,000), and most founders who understand the assumed-par-value election pay the $450 floor. Nevada charges $500 for the business license plus an Annual List that starts at $150 and climbs with authorized capital, for a $650 floor that grows quickly with share count.

Nevada is the more expensive choice at every scale, modestly so for small LLCs and dramatically so for corporations with large authorized share counts. The question is whether that premium buys something.

Who Nevada still makes sense for in late 2024

The clearest fit is a business with Nevada operations: a Las Vegas hospitality, gaming, or real-estate entity for which in-state nexus is already there. For these founders Nevada is not a choice; it is the venue. The second fit is the trust-and-dynasty case, using the 365-year perpetuity window inside a Nevada trust. The third is the asset- protection case: charging-order-only remedies under NRS 86.401, reinforced by Nevada case law that has declined to reverse-pierce single-member LLCs in reported decisions, though Wyoming offers a similar package at a much lower recurring cost.

Almost everyone else is paying $350 to $850 a year extra for a brand association that does less work than it used to. If your only reason for looking at Nevada was privacy, 2024 is the year that argument materially weakened. If you formed in Nevada before the CTA and your compliance is otherwise clean, the $350 annual carrying cost is low enough that churning the entity rarely pays; file the list, renew the license, file the BOI report, and move on.

Sources

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